


What you Get

by Naomida



Series: Howl at the Moon [13]
Category: Fantastic Four
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Angst, M/M, Nothing is Reed's Fault, Victor is The Worst, Werewolf Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 08:30:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9170968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naomida/pseuds/Naomida
Summary: Reed, contrary to popular belief, wasn’t as naive and stupid as he looked.





	

Reed considered himself a nice and easy going person. He tried to be cheerful about everything, did his best to be there for his friends, colleagues and pack members when they needed him, and, if he did say so himself, he was good at figuring problems out, whether they were his or other’s.

Objectively, Reed Richards was a good person who didn’t deserve bad things happening to him – like that one time he would have died if it hadn’t been for Sue giving him The Bite – so really, nothing explained _why_ , out of everyone who could have had _The Most Complicated Romantic Relationship Ever_ , it had to be him.

Not that his relationship with his mate _had_ to be romantic, god knew Jim had told him about a million times that some mates were totally platonic and happy about it, but Reed had started developing a huge crush on Victor exactly twelve seconds after meeting him, and to this day he could still remember with perfect clarity the impression of having his heart torn out of his chest and thrown under a train the night Victor had gone full feral on them and he had thought that Sue was going to kill him.

Thinking about it now, he realized that the clues had always been there, and he should have known that Victor, despite his constant disdain and insults, was his mate. And knowing it now, there was no going back. Reed definitely wanted a romantic relationship with his mate, and it looked like his wish would never be granted.

He had learned, in the months following his mating with Victor, to hide how this situation made him feel, but some days, it just got too much and he could barely get out of bed and function. And how could he, when he knew that his mate, _the one person he lived to protect and care for_ , would rather go insane and get killed than mate him.

Thinking about this sad reality made his wolf howl in despair inside his head, loud enough that Reed often thought that he was going to lose it too and attack someone just to make it stop, but Victor’s wolf seemed to be good at sensing it and would usually come cuddle him just as Reed was going to snap.

And wasn’t that sad? That the wolf was better than Victor at this entire relationship thing?

He sighed when the wolf sleeping sprawled on his legs twitched in his sleep and gently combed his fingers through the fur around his collar.

 

 

***

 

 

Reed, contrary to popular belief, wasn’t as naive and stupid as he looked. Something was going on with Sue, Victor and Peter, and he was pretty sure none of them wanted him to know what exactly, which only made him more curious and, mostly, scared. Surely, if something was happening with his mate, at least Sue would tell him, right?

Wrong, apparently, because as the days passed, Victor disappeared with Peter more and more frequently to do who knew what in the woods, and every time he questioned Sue or Peter about it, he was met with blank stares (from Sue), and spluttering explanations about walks and fresh air (from Peter – which sounded even more ridiculous said out loud).

For the first two weeks, Reed tried to convince himself that it was nothing. Maybe Victor just liked walking with Peter, or it was their way of bonding after the fact that Victor had attacked and almost killed him, that wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen after all.

Unfortunately for him, Reed couldn’t shake off the feeling that _something important was going on_. Something that had to do with _his mate_ , and they were keeping him _out_ of it. And if there was one thing that Reed Richards couldn’t take anymore, it was people keeping things from him that he _should have_ known. Like the fact that Victor knew that they were mates for _years_ and did nothing about it until he didn’t have a choice and Sue forced him to act on it.

Considering this, Reed decided that something had to be done. He wasn’t going to wait again for someone to finally deign fill him in.

 

 

***

 

 

Reed recruited Johnny, because he knew Peter best, and if Reed needed someone to distract Peter for a time, he knew Johnny was the only one who could.

“Okay, but what’s your plan, exactly?” asked the blond once Reed had told him about his suspicion.

Reed shrugged, because he had none.

“I considered following them, but it seems too...”

“Cliché?” asked Johnny, raising an amused eyebrow.

“Yes,” nodded Reed, biting down on his lips, “and I’d prefer if it was our plan B.”

“Good call.”

Reed nodded, and they didn’t say anything for a full minute.

Johnny was staring at him with intense eyes – a look that he usually reserved for his sister or Namor when he knew that they were purposefully being obtuse. Being on the end of that look for once was making Reed feel uneasy.

“What?” he asked, unable to meet Johnny’s glance and the hairs on the back of his neck raising in discomfort.

“Nothing,” replied Johnny, looking away and biting down on his lower lip, frowning slightly. “You just deserve better than that, you know.”

Reed nodded when Johnny turned to look at him again, but there was a lump in his throat, and he was pretty sure the other man knew that he didn’t believe it.

Still, Johnny just gave him an encouraging smile and squeezed his shoulder before leaving.

 

 

***

 

 

Six days later, Johnny seemed about as surprised as Reed felt when he announced him that Peter hadn’t told him anything about his frequent outings with Victor. Worse, he had made him promise to not ask about it anymore, and that, more than anything else, had Reed worrying that something really important was happening.

Something he _really_ should know about.

“Look,” said Johnny when Reed wrapped his fingers around his cup of coffee and almost broke it, “I can’t imagine how scary it must be for you to hear something like that, and I completely feel you man, but maybe you should wait for them to come to you. I mean, I know Peter more than I know myself and he wouldn’t have–”

“I don’t care,” Reed cut him, feeling his control fray with each furious beat of his panicked heart.

He tried swallowing around the knot lodged in his throat, but it was becoming increasingly harder to draw a breath in, and the wolf inside his head was ready to pounce and take control at any moment.

Johnny sensed it and looked right into his eyes, his flashing a lighter shade of blue in a show of dominance from his wolf that should have made Reed back off and calm down, but for some reason he couldn’t. Not when his mate and his Alpha were keeping something from him. Not this time.

He swallowed down hard, tasting bile and something really close to tears, and willed his wolf to wait before taking control and desperately howling like he wanted to. They were in a café downtown, and it wouldn’t do to cause a scene, _or worse_.

“Reed,” said Johnny, voice weaker than usual, looking concerned and slightly scared.

“I… I can’t take it a second time,” murmured Reed in answer before getting up on shaky legs and stumbling in the direction of the exit, barely registering that the blond was following and continuing to call his name.

Once out, the late autumn air a shock against his burning cheeks, Reed started panicking for real, because he had nowhere to go to get some semblance of privacy to shift into his other form. He stood frozen on the sidewalk for what seemed like a really long time, people bumping against him left and right, Johnny’s hand on his shoulder a heavy weight barely anchoring him, his mind running a mile an hour, making him dizzy.

He only realized that Johnny hadn’t stopped speaking to him when the other man gripped his upper arm and forcefully pulled him in some direction Reed couldn’t be bothered to recognized. Breathing was close to impossible, and it was obvious that Johnny was using some of his super-strength to get him to trail along, but it wasn’t until Reed was harshly pushed down against a hard and cold surface and Johnny gripped him by the nape to ground his face flush against it that he registered that he had started to shift.

In the middle of the street.

He would have started panicking about it too if it wasn’t for the wolf taking the wheel and pushing him to the back of his mind where he could only watch things unfold.

It only took him four minutes to fully shift into his wolf form, and that probably had to do with the adrenaline still running through his veins from the panic attack, but once it was done everything seemed a lot clearer.

The now hot, but still hard surface turned out to be the backseat of Johnny’s car. It was leather, he distantly remembered as Johnny seemed to realize that he wasn’t freaking out anymore and was releasing his hold on the back of his neck.

Reed’s wolf hadn’t really liked that, but Johnny was stronger and higher up in the pack hierarchy than him, so he did nothing other than scowl after straightening up and turning to face him.

Johnny, unfortunately, was scowling even harder.

“Do you fucking realize that you just shifted in the middle of the day, _right_ in the middle of the city?” he asked through gritted teeth.

Reed’s wolf couldn’t see the difference between Johnny’s usual eye-color and his wolf’s, but it wasn’t hard to guess that Johnny was losing his control a tiny bit too. That was bound to happen when a member of the pack did while standing so close to him.

“I get that they’re pulling a real dick move on you and that you’re furious and freaking out, _I get it_. But do you even realize what you almost did?!”

Reed wanted to agree, because now that his mind was clear he was horrified about his loss of control, but the wolf was in command, and he didn’t care one bit about it. Some concepts were completely alien to him, and he mostly got by on emotions alone and, Reed was surprised to learned, shifting in the middle of a busy street didn’t mean much to him when other important things like his mate hiding stuff from him were happening.

And that thought alone had both Reed and his wolf panic again.

Johnny pushed him back flush against the seat when he started howling in anguish as loudly as he could, covering him with his body and trying to shush him, his warm breath right next to Reed’s right ear as he ran soothing fingers through the fur of his back, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t his mate, and nothing but his mate could make him stop.

“Oh fuck,” said Johnny, voice trembling as much as his fingers between Reed’s shoulder blades. “Fuck Reed, _please_ , I’m begging you, shut up just for a second, _please_ ,” he said, to no avail.

Reed could barely hear what he was saying, could barely realize what _he_ was doing. For some reason the only thing he could register was the raw pain brought by the fact that his mate still didn’t trust him and, worse than that, was abandoning him for other wolves.

For _Peter_. The guy that he had bitten.

So lost as he was, he didn’t realize that Johnny’s weight wasn’t pressing down on him anymore, or that the car’s engine was purring and that they were moving. All he could do was howl, again and again, hoping for some sort of relief to come to him.

 

 

***

 

 

It got worse, somehow.

They must have reached the house, because Sue was somehow trying to coax him out of Johnny’s car and reassure him with soothing words, but between the ringing in his ears from howling so loudly in such a small space and the deafening beating of his own heart against his ribs, he couldn’t understand a word she was saying, and all he and his wolf could see when looking at her concerned and scared and horrified and teary red eyes was _betrayal_.

If she hadn’t been his Alpha and the one who had given him The Bite, he would have attacked her. He knew that. Instead, he settled for the other solution and managed to crawl from the backseat to underneath the driver’s seat, still howling as he did so, and made himself as small as he could, hoping that no one would bother him there.

Loki joined Sue, he could feel it, the air growing tense with the weight of his power, but he didn’t try to dig him out of his hiding place and got Sue to take several steps back instead, which didn’t really help that much.

For a long time, nothing else happened. He was left alone, howling in despair from his hiding place, two Alphas waiting a few feet away, Johnny probably with them. His chest was hurting, from the hard beating of his heart, and the weight of panic that seemed to press down on it and made it so, _so_ hard to breathe or think.

Then, he felt him. Felt his panic, reflecting his own, and when he closed his eyes, Reed could almost see him, running through the woods to get to him, as quickly as possible.

He reopened his eyes when he realized that someone else had crawled inside the car between the backseat and his hiding place, and the blue eyes staring back at him had his voice die right in the middle of another howl.

Victor’s wolf blinked once, before shoving his muzzle under the driver’s seat to nuzzle at him, and for one precious second, Reed forgot all about the source of his problem and relaxed and basked into his mate’s attention.

Then, just as Victor was tentatively trying to lick at his nose, Reed picked up the scent of another person – _Peter_ , supplied his brain after a beat of confusion – and everything rushed back to him.

He tried howling again, but his voice broke into a pathetic whimper as Victor jumped back in surprise, and he knew that if he had been in his human form he would have started sobbing right there and then. Since he couldn’t, he settled on planting his claws into the floor mat and whimpering again, looking away from Victor’s wolf.

For a very, _very_ long time, nothing happened. Reed was left there, whimpering in pain in his own little hole, completely by himself – and it seemed fitting, he thought, to have his pack waiting outside the car as he lost it, all alone, and all because Victor was too selfish to do the right thing. Or maybe he just hated him _that_ much. He didn’t know anymore.

He was brought out of his thought when something warm touched the tip of his muzzle and trailed down until it was cupping his cheek, gently scratching behind his ear at the same time, making him stop whimpering for a moment as he closed his eyes and let himself enjoy it.

Something else touched one of his front leg, making him open his eyes again as he surveyed the thing – a hand, he realized with surprise. Two hands, actually, one scratching behind his ear, the other holding his paw, like a human would hold a hand.

That had him stop, and look up at where Victor’s wolf used to be, and was now replaced by a face that had grown so unfamiliar with time, Reed and his wolf almost didn’t recognize it.

When his brain registered what his eyes were telling it, Reed’s heart missed a beat or two, and he started whimpering again, this time for an entirely different reason, as he crawled out from his hiding place as quickly as he could.

Victor realized what he wanted to do, because he didn’t move and just opened his arms to him when Reed finally managed to get out and crawled over his bare chest, trying to press himself as close to his mate’s warm skin as he could and nuzzling him furiously before licking his neck, from shoulder to ear, as soon as Victor’s arms closed around him and he was being cuddled.

Reed could have _wept_.

Victor, _his mate_ , in his human form for the first time in _months_.

Victor, with the human in charge judging by his intense black eyes, holding him close and letting him nuzzle him as much as he desired.

Victor, who had come to get him.

 _Victor_.

Reed tried to shift back into a human, desperate to feel Victor’s skin against his own, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t do it, which had him panic again up until Victor started shushing him.

“Shh,” he said, his voice rougher than he remember, “don’t try to shift, it’s fine. I’m here Reed, you’re _okay_.”

Reed whimpered and closed his eyes, pressing his muzzle even closer to Victor’s neck.

“I’m here,” repeated his mate, as if sensing that those were the words he most needed to hear, “ _I’m right there_ , it’s fine.”

Exhausted, and feeling whole for the first time _ever_ , Reed closed his eyes and dozed off, wishing to never have to move away from Victor’s arms.

 

 

***

 

 

When he woke up, Reed was in his own bed, still a wolf and, to his surprise, being stared at by a pair of familiar blue eyes. He didn’t move, and neither did Victor’s wolf, and Reed instantly _knew_.

He rolled away from the black wolf, heart sinking and his wolf clawing at the fringe of his mind to keep control, but Reed managed to resist, jump off the bed and shift into his human form again, feeling like his heart was getting ripped out of his body the whole time.

Once he was finally back to being himself and had waited until the usual post-shifting pins in needles in his legs and arms had disappeared, he slowly sat up and turned to Victor, who hadn’t made a single movement.

“Why did you shift back?” he asked, throat burning and sounding hoarse from howling so much.

Victor, of course, couldn’t reply and only blinked once at him before looking away.

“Why do you hate me so much?” he pushed, refusing to stop, not now that everyone had witnessed how much the situation was truly affecting him, “Surely, you must know by now that this is slowly killing me.”

The wolf continued to not look at him.

“Victor,” he breathed, trying one last time, “ _please_. It… I can’t take it anymore. You, out of everyone, should know what it does to me. It’s _unbearable_. _I need_ _you_.”

His mate, instead of turning to him and starting to shift so they could finally have a talk, like they should have had a long time ago, jumped off of the bed, paddled to the door, got on his hind limbs to open it, and left without a backward glance.

Reed, sitting completely naked on his bedroom’s floor, didn’t try to stop or muffle his sobs. The agony was just too much, and he was done putting up a front.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been having all the feels recently, and there are certain things that even World of Warcraft can't help with, so I had to resort to this. Hope you liked it! Don't forget to comment, even just a word is good and greatly appreciated ;)


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